Philip1961:H, I was interested in your comment about the blown highlights on Martin's portrait. I'm a beginner as you know, so asking for instruction rather than contradiction, isn't that the point of high-key portraits? It seems well handled to me. Maybe a female face lends itself better - when I try for this effect on self portraits, my leathery mug ends up looking like a mouldy tomato :-)
Hi Philip,
I'm very much a novice as well, and there are others with far more talent on this forum than myself (so take this with a pinch of salt and some scepticism).
With the blown highlights, there is no detail at all in the highlights. However, you can still have a high key shot without blowing the highlights, there will still be subtle detail in the white bits, it's just that the variation between pixels in the white bits will be very small, but a texture will still be noticeable.
Ultimately, it's a matter of personal preference and whether the treatment is flattering or not to the subject.
BTW, usually high-key means that the background is lighter than the subject, or at least according to
thinkcamera.com. Others have said that the image is dominated by the lighter tones. However, I wouldn't like to try to define the term "high-key", it'd probably start a riot.
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H.
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